Dr Natasa Lackovic

Senior Lecturer

Research Overview

My research focuses on advancing relational and arts-informed approaches and practices towards educational and social change. These acknowledge the role of place, materiality, artefacts and emotions in knowledge as well as social development.

I have done novel research on visual media and multimodality in/for learning in higher education and associated approaches such as critical media literacy. As of recent, I have been interested in the notions of an educated city and done research in place-based education and student/youth mental health.

Notably, I have been developing methods and theoretical perspectives to bridging persistent dualisms in education, such as "image-concept", "concrete-abstract", "us-them" and "mind-body" in tackling pressing social, representational, and environmental crises. My approaches also aim to enhance analytical, creative, and transformative thinking on a variety of important educational topics in teaching-learning interactions and research. Two recent books (Inquiry Graphics in Higher Education, 2020, Palgrave McMillan) and (Relational and Multimodal Higher Education, co-written with A. Olteanu, upcoming in 2023, Routledge) present the recent fruits of the above mentioned developments.

I am an inter(cross-)disciplinary thinker, author and researcher. If I was to position myself in a field or discipline, this would be a challenge, as there is always more than one to list: semiotics, learning sciences, visual arts, media and communication, socio-cultural psychology, socio + new materialism, and criticality. I build on a wide range of perspectives and have applied selected aspects of C.S. Peirce's philosophy and logic for new (educational) purposes.

Professional Role

I am a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

In my research, I am working on advancing our understanding of the role of embodiment, materiality (in both physical and digital representation form), images, art and artefacts in education and society. Passionate about matters of social justice, innovation, interdisciplinarity and relational ontology.

At Lancaster University, I am currently:• a co-Director of Social Futures Centre, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FASS)• on the FASS-LUMS Research Engagement Committee• Departmental Research Engagement Director

Current Teaching

PhD module Leader: I teach on the online Doctoral Programme in Higher Education Research, Evaluation and Enhancement (HEREE) and I lead the module ED.S842: "Enhancing Learning Teaching and Assessment".
MA module Leader: I lead a module Ed.S836 "Policies, Ideologies and Interventions in Education" for all students on the departmental online masters programmes.
I also teach face to face on the residential programme in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL).

External Roles

External Examiner (current) Glasgow School of Arts, UK (former: Kingston University, UK).
Co-Editor, Video Journal of Educational Pedagogy, Brill
Editorial Board, the Postdigital Science and Education journal, Springer.
International Association of Visual Pedagogies, board member

Web Links

Designer, co-ordinator and copy right owner of the Lancaster University's interdisciplinary hub GNC ReOPeN web page, Graphic Novels and Comics Research, Outreach, Pedagogy (and Engagement) Network.

PhD Supervisions Completed

Experienced doctoral thesis supervisor.

Nafeth Al Hashlamoun

Completed: PhDProject title: Exploring the Factors Affecting an Adoption of E-Assessments Among The CIS Programmes in a Higher Education Institution in the Middle East (HEIME)

Tony Murphy

Completed: PhDProject title: Exploring the Challenges of Managing Blended Learning Courses in Selected Irish Higher Education Institutes: An Activity Theory Study

Michelle Flood

Completed: PhDProject title: Shaping Up for Success: A Qualitative Case Study on the Impact of Using Interactive Radar Graphs on Workplace-Based Assessment Practices for Pharmacy Interns in Ireland

Andrea Moloney

Completed: PhDProject title: From Disorientation to Reintegration: an Exploratory Investigation of Mature Students’ Engagement in Transformative Learning

Jen Gibbons

Completed: PhDProject title: A Bernsteinian Analysis of the Interplay Between Legal Knowledge and the Legal Professional In University Law Schools in Yorkshire and Alberta: Rule of Law or Rule of Lawyers

Hennie Yip

Completed: PhDProject title: From Design to Practice: Teachers' Experience and Perspectives of Blended Professional Development in Hong Kong

Errol Luders

Completed: PhD

Project title: Mediating multimedia artefacts and teaching-learning experiences relating to Summative Assessment Feedback (SAF) and student overall satisfaction

Wilma Teviotdale

Completed: PhD

Project title: Expanding the paradigm of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: multimodality and semiotics of teaching-learning interactions in an undergraduate Accounting programme

Zoe Hurley

Completed: PhD

Project title: Lessons in Dynamics and Distractions: Social Media and Gulf-Arab Women’s Empowerment

Career Details

I have had more than 17 years of experience working in the field of Education, and more than 10 years working in the field of Higher Education.

I began work as Lecturer at Lancaster University in September 2014. Prior to that, I worked at the University of Nottingham as doctoral researcher (PhD) and Research Assistant/Fellow, where I completed my PhD in 2014, having been awarded a Visual Learning Lab and the Learning Sciences Research Institute scholarship.

I was a European Council Erasmus Mundus Scholar at the UCL/Institute of Education, London (UK), where I graduated from an international MA degree in Lifelong Learning: Policy and Management in 2010.

PhD Supervision Interests

I am interested in supervising students whose interests relate to visual, material and digital culture/research/pedagogy, multimodality, semiotics in education, socio-materiality, social justice/critical theory and critical media literacy. Areas of interest include critical approachers to graduate employability, teaching-learning designs, student empowerment, art-based methods and post-truth/humanism/digital.